Well I went out to feed my turtles yesterday morning and my female Heidi was sitting in a hole laying eggs. I was so excited and bounced into the house yelling for everyone to come and see and grabbed my camera. My husband thought it was pretty cool too but my 12 year old son was more annoyed at being taken away from his video game.
Anyway, I've had this female for ten years now. She hatched in our wood pile and I raised her inside for three years and then added her to my outdoor enclosure where four other ornates live. This is the first time she's laid eggs, that I know of and I watch them every day.
Should I leave them in the ground to hatch naturally or is it better to take them out and incubate them inside? I tried to incubate red-eared eggs one time and they all died so I don't feel very confident about doing it but I'm concerned that if I leave it outside it might get dug up by one of the other turtles or a possum or raccoon.
Any advice would be welcome!!

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• ornate eggs - tortuga5, Sun Jun 4 13:16:45 2006
• RE: ornate eggs - PHRatz, Tue Jun 6 09:38:08 2006